COOP, Casalecchio di Reno, Bologna, is the largest Italian retail company with €11300 million sales, 1300 stores and 55700 employees. COOP is a consumer co-operative with 6 millions members. COOP ITALIA is the marketing head office of COOP with 400 employees in two sites (Casalecchio di Reno, Bologna and Sesto Fiorentino, Florence). COOP Italia has the role to develop COOP product brands. The Quality Department, composed by 40 people, is in charge of establishing the requirements of COOP products and surveys their conformity. The COOP ITALIA Laboratory, composed of seven people, is a part of this department and its principal role is to analytically check the quality of food and non-food products. The laboratory personnel is composed by biologists and chemists. The kind of analyses performed in the laboratory range from food microbiology to molecular biology and chemistry. (Martino Barbanera)